SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA—Nine years ago, Seth Mallios, an archaeology professor at San Diego State University, discovered two murals done by students of the university back in the 1930s on the walls of Hardy Tower, one of the campus’ oldest buildings. One of the murals was a six-foot depiction of several characters from the Lewis Carroll classic Alice in Wonderland.” Mallios is on the hunt for other paintings in the building on a campus, which, he says, is in the grips of “mural fever.”